Our Beginning

Kim Crawford Wines was launched in 1996 in a small home in Auckland, New Zealand. With incredible speed, Kim Crawford’s powerful, aromatic wines began winning awards and gained a devoted, even fanatical, following. Only two years after launch, Kim Crawford Wines began exporting to the United States. Within four years, the company moved into a state-of-the-art winery in Marlborough and began looking at vineyards to purchase and cultivate.

In the relentless pursuit of excellence we believe in asking why not.

Just six years after these humble beginnings, Kim Crawford Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc made the 2003 Wine Spectator's Top 100 List to roaring acclaim. It made the Top 100 list again in 2005–and then again in 2006 and 2008. And it was also in 2008 that Wine Spectator awarded our Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc with a prestigious ranking of 90+ points...for the seventh year in a row. Today we’re the #1 New Zealand wine in the United States.* Our history and future is one defined by undoing the ordinary. While we share our wines throughout the world, we remember our roots with each and every award we win. To forever and always…

Our aim is to craft wines that are vibrant, fruit driven and generous.

We strive to let the natural flavours of the grapes shine through in every glass you drink.

That's why:

We were one of the first wineries in New Zealand to launch our wines in screw caps because they keep wine fresher than corks. Now it is an industry norm.

At a time when the world was flooded with oak aged chardonnays, we decided the world needed a clean, top quality, fruit driven chardonnay devoid of heavy oak, so we started making one.